Harvey (IBS?)

Kim · 19-02-2011, 05:18 PM

Harvey, the rescue cat we got last year has permanently runny and bloody poo. He has had blood samples taken, all clear, faecal samples were all clear too. We had him on a special diet, didn't make any difference and he has just finished a course a ab's and steroids, no difference! We are at a loss to what to do now! He is perfectly healthy and happy in every other way and has certainly put on weight since we got him, so I don't think it can be anything too serious. I know cats can get a form of IBS so thinking this may be the problem. Anyone have any experience of this and any advice please?

angieh · 19-02-2011, 05:20 PM

Sorry Kim - I have no knowledge of this condition in cats, although I have myself suffered in the past.

I wonder if Slippery Elm would help?

farthing · 19-02-2011, 05:40 PM

Candy has been diagnosed with IBD, she didn't have diarrhoea but was sick nearly every day. We had her blood tested and x-rayed, this showed she had high eosinophils in her blood and her gut was very thickened.
The vets said the thickened gut and sickness could either be IBD or a diffuse tumours which we would only find out be a biopsy. The fact she had high eosinophils idicated she either had a high parasite burden or an allergy. Candy has always had high eosinophils and is regularly wormed so the vets concluded because of this, her thickened gut and symptoms it was a form of IBD.
Thankfully we have been able to control her with diet, we feed Hi-life which is 60% and doesn't contain gluten.
She has occasional flare ups and gets meds including steriods. Her last flare up was quite bad but we did a blood test and sent off a sample to test her thyroid level, this showed she was developing hyperthyroidism, since this has been treated she is much better.
How old is Harvey, it may be worth testing his thyroid too!

Elaine · 19-02-2011, 06:03 PM

I am very sorry to hear this Kim and I hope you find the right diet and or meds to help him. IBS can become life threatening so it is a serious condition and some research shows that there may be a link to IBS and Cancer. It is thought that this may be why I lost Eva, although her boughts of upset tummies were not seen to be chronic.

Irritable Bowel Disease is a chronic inflammation of part or all of the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. When the lining becomes inflamed, the cat's bowels cannot move properly. If the bowels become clogged in the stomach area, it causes vomiting. If they become clogged in the lower intestine, then diarrhea results.

Here are a few links that may help.....
http://www.flippyscatpage.com/felineibs.html
http://www.harpsie.com/colitis_ibd.htm

calismum · 19-02-2011, 07:07 PM

No experience at all of this with cats. I did have a dog who was query IBS. We fed a gluten free food and that helped enormously.

Poor Harvey. I hope you manage to find something to ease his condition.

dandysmom · 19-02-2011, 09:35 PM

Poor Harvey; sorry, no experience with this ..

Kim · 20-02-2011, 12:00 AM

Thank-you all.

Harvey is about 6. Bloods and faecal samples showed nothing amiss at all. He doesn't have any of the obvious symptoms of hyperthyroidism. He is occasionally sick, but tbh no more than the other cats. He is wormed regularly. We have done just about everything we can think of! Thanks for the links Elaine, I will take a look.

Velvet · 20-02-2011, 02:04 AM

We had a lot of problems with Tim's bowels and finally after a lot of trial and error discovered he was allergic to most dried kibble. At now 9 months he is on adult wet food and Hills adult sensitive kibble which he can tolerate.

Amber is a bit younger so although on adult wet food she gets Pro Plan kitten sensitive - as they eat each others food sometimes we needed to make sure Tim had no reaction to Ambers food, which he doesnt he can happily eat the Proplan kibble and it does him no harm at all

We had success with Pro Plan with one of the dogs hence my trying it.

Once Amber has a couple more months on her I will either put them both onto the Hills sensitive or the Adult Pro Plan sensitive. Plus of course the wet food. Amber didnt have the best start in life which is why we are keeping her on the kitten stage dry food for the time being.

You dont always want to experiment with foodstuff either in case you make the situation worse.

Elaine · 20-02-2011, 08:47 AM

The first link mentions the use of slippery elmbark, certainly worth a try.

Kim · 20-02-2011, 05:39 PM

Yes, I will try thanks. Thanks everyone

Welcome to our Cat Forums!
				Welcome to our CatForums! You are seeing this message because you are viewing our cat forums as a guest. You can continue to browse our many cat related areas as a guest but you are more than welcome to register and join our friendly community of Cat Lovers! ... And for free! Doing so will also remove this message and some of the ads, such as the one on the left. Please click here to register.